Day 8-9: My Fitness Miracle!

I'm off on my day count! Today is the 10th...I'm recapping yesterday...so I guess we'll make this post Day 8/9. Oops!

Last night, I was up a bit late watching TV after work. You know you're up too late once the infomercials start playing. Sometimes, I just have to laugh at the cheesiness of the products. Well, I finally found the piece of equipment I just HAVE to buy...NOT!!!



The Red Exerciser!! I just had to go to their website...there are three different models of this thing! I think I'll just figure out how to pimp my office chair with some resistance, use a broom to grip, and I'll be fit for life, right? Swivel my way to health! I do love my infomercials and have some great products I still use (Winsor Pilates, Turbo Jam, and the Firm), but I just won't get suckered in by this idea.

Since I've made it through my first week of Phase 1, I think it's time to do a bit of assessment. I had a nice loss for the week, but there is a big component I didn't focus on last week. You might have guessed it....EXERCISE!!!! Now, I did walk everyday, but that didn't amount to that much work. So, I'll definitely be adding that in here this week. I let my Giggleman's attitude about working out ("Oh, I'll start hardcore once we rejoin the gym") affect what I did. I had a whole month of great home workouts using my various videos, but then slacked off after I had some major pain for a week. No more of that! If I don't report back tomorrow with some exercise results, make sure to slap me around a bit!!

Another thing I'm struggling with is eating enough. You'd think a girl my size has no problems with food, right? Well, before I began this plan, I usually ate one big meal at the end of the day, sometimes lunch, and never breakfast. I didn't really notice myself getting hungry and don't eat unless something is sitting in front of me, I wander into the kitchen, or I see Giggleman munching on something and grab some of his stuff. My big meal of the day usually ended up with us eating out or Giggleman cooking me some huge portions of food. With eating regular meals this week, I'm getting full, and when I track my food (except for Saturday), I'm shocked when my calories are low. I just don't feel like I could eat more, even though I'm trying to reach 1500 calories a day. Weird! I am going to plan my daily meals in advance so that way I know I'm getting my calories and nutrients in...if I eat too low now, my body will get too adjusted, and I sure don't want a plateau down the road where I'll have to cut more to get movement.

Third goal for this week: Increase my water intake! Before this week, I had no problem getting 64 ounces of water or more in daily. Maybe it was because I drank more instead of having the mandatory snacks for South Beach. Last week, I struggled. So, I will focus on drinking at least 2 glasses of water at each meal and making sure I keep my water bottle refilled at work. Hopefully these changes will make week 2 go even better!

Monday Totals:

• Calories: 1462
• Carbs: 62
• Fats: 75
  
• Protein: 137
  

Day 6 and 7: Blah, Blah, Blah

The weekend was pretty uneventful...I survived my Giggleman's birthday including a meal off plan and a piece of cake. My weight loss since last Monday is 4.6 pounds gone for good. Yay!

I'm running late, so I'm going to post my totals quickly and will have a more exciting post later. I'll start blogging about things other than food shortly, I promise!!

Day 6/7/8 Totals:

Calories: 1189/1205/2008 (birthday food!)
Fats: 37/47/95
Carbs: 61/107/217 (time to reign in again!)
Protein: 147/73/70 (when I eat the carbs, I'm forgetting the protein, I guess!)

Day 5: Off With His Head!!

Fuckitty fuckwat fucker!! OK, I've wanted to get those words out of my system since yesterday afternoon. I'm good now, on to regularly scheduled programming on this blog :)

Why am I so angry? Yesterday, we had a sort of health and fitness fair at work. We could sign up for a health screening to get certain things checked, which I needed to do anyways this year for cheaper health insurance, even if the results were not optimal. We had our cholesterol, blood sugar, weight, BMI, height, blood pressure, and waist circumference checked. Oh, I'm not angry with my results at all....I was shocked that some numbers were that good! I'm very, very pissed at the guy who went over my results with me. I now can understand why some fat acceptance people get so angry!

So, I finish up with my screening and wait for a person to go over the details. They take the person into a private conference room to discuss them. At least, that's what I saw happening while I was waiting. When my name was called, I had to talk to the guy right in the open room where everybody was getting checked. What? Maybe others were called that way and I didn't notice, but it felt weird. First, he showed my blood pressure...120/63...Yay! Optimal is 119/79 or below, and the last time mine was checked when I was ill, it was higher. Does he share my glee? Nooooo! Next, he gives me my blood sugar results. I was really curious about what this number was because I'm a PCOS/Insulin Resistant chick and I was ready for a number over 100. Nope, I got 86 mg/dl...anything lower than 110 when you aren't fasting is normal. Yay yet again! Cholesterol time-total cholesterol 142-another woohoo for me! I've never heard my results about that before and I know high is pretty typical in my family, so I was happy. The guy then got a sparkle in his eye as he noticed he could finally lower the boom. My HDL cholesterol (the good kind) was low...34...I know, I'm terribly undesirable now.

Here's where I get pissed. He tells me the way to fix this number is to "stop eating the fatty foods you do like greasy hamburgers, french fries, and cake." And then, "you have to exercise for at least 15 minutes a day, which I can tell you don't now. Do you know what an exercise band is?" And he then circles 10-15 minutes on my paper and prattles on describing one without waiting for my answer. WTF is wrong with you asstard tech? I'm sure you don't have any medical background, you have no idea that I used to be in marathon training before my ankle surgery and no clue about my workouts. You're assuming I'm just a huge, lazy slob! If I was in one of the private rooms, this man would have lost a testicle. So, I'm sitting there wondering how can I harm him physically in front of everyone or give him a stern talking to without losing my job. Hmmmm, I'm coming short on possibilities.

I stew in my anger while he then goes over my weight, BMI, and waist size. He tells me "You have to start doing something about your size instead of watching TV and eating all the time." Oh, I need to rip out his tongue, gouge out his eyes, strip him naked, and duct tape him to the flagpole outside NOW. You know what? I wouldn't be pissed at all if he would have just asked, "Are you trying to do something about this issue currently?" instead of just assuming I eat deep-fried Twinkies while watching Fresh Prince of Bel Air marathons on TV Land. I don't even have basic cable right now! We could have had an honest discussion about what I'm doing and what goals I'd like to achieve. I'm thinking about complaining to management about this guy, but I don't really see a good resolution.

Other that that arse, the rest of the fair was great! I learned about a lot of healthy programs available including free fitness coaching and mental health issues (which I'll need for sure now!!) through work, picked up some free gym passes, had a wonderful massage and neck check (where I found out that I better get to a chiropractor or something for it), and a free water bottle. I was ready to burst out laughing when I walked past a booth for Jenny Craig and this lady was doing a hard sales technique on this woman that maybe had 15 pounds to lose tops. She didn't even attempt to get my attention. Shocking! There also was a WW booth there where a girl that works here told about her success and that she had dropped out a few times before she was finally ready to commit. I'm still thinking about going back after I see how I do with South Beach.

Day 5 Totals:

• Calories: 1225
• Fats: 48 g (finally in the normal range!!!)
• Carbs: 27
• Protein: 163 (I'm an overachiever!)
  

Day 4: Carb Explosion!

I'm finally starting to feel a bit more energy this week. I'm not sure if it's the food plan that's helping or not, but I am waking up naturally earlier in the day instead of abusing the snooze button or resetting my alarm to the latest time possible without getting late for work. I feel that I'm getting better sleep also. Usually, I wake up at least 5 times a night and slug Giggleman (grrr, he won't let me use his name on my blog yet!) for snoring so loudly. I only woke up once early this AM when he was savagely clearing the forest.

Confession time: I ate a dessert with bread in it last night! I wasn't even craving it, but Giggleman bought it and I've never tried it before. The treat did absolutely nothing for me and I didn't go into a carb craving frenzy mode afterwards. I had my serving and wasn't tempted to eat more even though there was a huge amount left over. It did add 53 g carbs to my total and more fat than I'd like for yesterday and gave me a bit of a headache due to that huge influx. Overall though, I was still within a nice calorie range and even below the SparkPeople (which isn't based on SBD) recommended carb amount for the day. I'm back to full-on Phase 1 today so all is good.

Day 4 Totals:

• Calories: 1619
• Carbs: 74 (would have been a new low of 21 without the dessert!)
  
• Fats: 82 g (ehhh, whatever)
  
• Protein: 144 g (kick arse #)
  

Day 3: Kitchen Goddess!

The South Beach Diet takes a whole lot of food planning and cooking! I haven't had to cook in two years much due to my man always doing it. But, I never was a horrible cook before then, so I thought I could handle it!! I've been checking out recipes and picking out things we'd like. Kalyn's Kitchen and the boards at 3 Fat Chicks have been a tremendous help!!

Yesterday, I decided to make two items: Mock French Toast/Pancakes (no bread involved and the recipe is the same for both) and Egg Muffins. First, I had to try to find all the items in my kitchen. Let's just say that I am going to do some reorganizing because Giggleman's way just doesn't make any sense! Plus, I had to wash measuring cups, a bowl, a whisk (I think that's the proper name...I call everything thingamabobs myself), and a griddle. I tried the Mock French Toast recipe first. Breaking the eggs and mixing all the other ingredients together were no problem. Then, it was time to cook! I have never made pancakes or french toast before on the griddle, but I've watched plenty of times. How hard could it be?

Needless to say, I made a complete mess!! I didn't know what temp to put the griddle on so I set it in the middle. I waited about 5 minutes to see if the light goes off when the griddle reaches the temp. The light still hadn't gone off but the side of the griddle felt hot, so I decided to pour on my mixture. Big Mistake! The stuff didn't want to stay nicely in one spot like I've seen it when others have cooked and it oozed all over. I only dumped a little on the griddle first, luckily. The mixture started to solidify a bit so I decided to dump on the rest. Oops!!! So, a lot of the gunk didn't stay on the griddle!! And then, the light on the griddle finally went off. Gee thanks!! The part that did stay on did taste pretty yummy although it didn't look like pancakes or french toast at the end!

I then made the Egg Muffins...I put in some celery and meat like it said. Luckily, those worked perfectly!!! They were yummy and perfectly formed and everything! I have enough for days so I won't have to work so hard on breakfast until later in the week. I so wanted to take a picture but I couldn't even find my digital camera. Guess I need to do some cleaning!

By the time I had cooked, cleaned up, and sampled the fruit of my labor, it was almost lunch time. I wasn't ready for lunch so I waited to eat until right before going to work...I threw together a salad and used Wish Bone Salad Spritzer in Red Wine for dressing. Wow, that dressing is so yummy and much easier for me to not overload. Definitely try it if you haven't already. I had a cheese stick and the SB dessert staple, sugar-free Jello. I then headed out to work, forgetting to pack a snack or dinner. My stomach punished me with loud growling, which I haven't felt or heard in a long time. When I got home, I finally had dinner. Surprisingly, I didn't have the urge to gobble the food quickly and overeat. I did have a fudgsicle afterwards and discovered I grabbed the non sugar-free one. Oops!

After I tracked my food for the day, I was VERY low on calories...not good, but not shocking since my lunch and breakfast kind of mixed together and the portions I ate of my cooking were tiny. Totals were:

• Calories-877 (BAD, BAD, BAD!)
• Fats: 41 g
• Carbs: 33 g
• Protein: 91 g